When content is interacted with in a computer environment, the user interacts with a “lean forward” user interface. Such interfaces require the user to actively participate through keystrokes and mouse clicks. The user interface of interactive television services often consists of ‘menu items’ from which a user actively selects one (by navigating using up/down/left/right buttons, and then pressing ‘ok’ or a similar button to confirm his choice). The menu items are often nicely listed in a static 2D layout. The menu items typically lead, after a number of menus and selections, to trailers, synopsis data, video assets (Video on Demand) or a linear broadcast. This can be characterized as a ‘lean forward’ user experience, because the user is requested to actively make a choice before anything else happens. Often multiple user interactions are required before a preview of a content item is shown. If the user does not do anything, the screen remains the same except maybe some animated user interface elements on the screen.
When content is displayed in a television environment, the user generally wishes to have a “lean-back” experience with little interaction with a controller, but still desires to be entertained. This is even true of interactive content that is distributed through communication networks, such as cable television systems. The “lean forward” web browser, word processor, and other applications do not translate well to a television viewing experience. Thus, there is a need for a “lean-back” user interface that can be rendered in real-time and that provides for individualized user content.
It is known in the prior art, in computer-based systems to employ tiles that when moved over with a cursor provide a presentation view of the content. Currently, the presentation view is for static content (e.g. word processing documents, spreadsheets). The current version of Microsoft's Windows product includes such functionality.
Additionally, a company called Animoto provides for an animation rendering web service. Animoto accepts a set of movies and still pictures as assets, and renders an animation to present these assets. However, the end user cannot interact with the renderings.